30 December 2008

Sometimes you run out of words

Sometimes you run out of words.

Rachel at
Velveteen Rabbi is a 'Mensch', a writer and a woman of G-d and she found the words when she wrote There is Nothing More Beautiful Than Peace.

There is nothing I can add.

24 December 2008

Fire

It's been all over the local news now as well as in The Methodist Recorder so I think it's safe to ask your prayers for Trinity Methodist Church in Kidderminster which suffered extensive fire damage on Sunday 14th December destroying the entire worship area and causing over £100,000 in damage.

Trinity is the 'mother church' of our Circuit and everyone is in a state of shock. However, the congregation have been encouraged by the amount of support that they have received from our wider community as well as words of encouragement from Methodists around the country.

The congregation held its first service in the church hall this past Sunday and Christmas services will also be in the church hall. The Christmas lunch which the church puts on for people in the community who would otherwise spend Christmas alone will also take place as normal. Community groups have been able to meet as normal since the rest of the church apart from the worship area was not damaged.

The congregation could use prayers for wisdom and discernment as they move forward into the future.

Trinity Methodist Church is open and operating as normal

12 December 2008

Advent - What is God Like?

A stunning sermon for Advent 3 by Lawrence Moore of The Windermere Centre.

If you like this:
Advent brings the question of what God is like into sharp focus. Advent is about waiting for God. The underlying supposition is that we will be waiting eagerly and anxiously - that God’s advent will be a good thing; that it’s something we’d obviously want. Yet if we could persuade people that God was genuinely just in the wings, about to appear, most people would regard that as thoroughly Bad News. In fact, it would absolutely ruin their Christmas! And why? Because the God they anticipate arriving is to be feared or disliked or appeased or grovelled to. Nobody wants to see the person who dislikes them the most appear - especially when that person has absolute power over them! If God doesn’t like you, and God has the power to consign you to hell, or do whatever other sorts of things God might do to express disapproval, disappointment and dislike of you, you will not be anxious to see God!

And for goodness’ sake, let’s not shake our heads regretfully, or tut at people’s capacity to get things so wrong: the reason they think like that about God is because that’s the message they’ve got from the Church! And if not actively, they’ve at least heard nothing to act as any strong counter or corrective.
You'll like this

And for all of you who are reading this thinking: 'But people need to know that God is angry with them' - No, they don't.

06 December 2008

Archbishop Sentamu: Mugabe must go

The BBC reports that the Archbishop of York is calling for the overthrow of Robert Mugabe
Writing in the Observer newspaper, Dr John Sentamu called for Mr Mugabe and his allies to be overthrown so they can stand trial in The Hague.
Dr Semantu added: "The time to remove them from power has come."
Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the world to tell Mr Mugabe that "enough is enough" amid growing concern over the country's cholera outbreak.

05 December 2008

Gassing Away

The price of Natural Gas is lower than it was a year ago.

Has anyone out there noticed their heating bills going down?

03 December 2008

Don't protect gays from discrimination

This is utterly appalling. How does a person find the words to react appropriately to this news item?:  Vatican attacked for opposing gay decriminalization
Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalize homosexuality....Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.
If I write my true feelings it's going to sound like a rant.

I repeat my statement that I have made elsewhere on this blog here, here, and here: It is one thing to hold that homosexual acts are sinful for a Christian. It is quite another thing to condone or support the imprisonment of gay people in civil law, particularly in the knowledge that, in many countries, imprisonment for homosexuality means that a person's life is at risk.

Again, I ask the question that Cecilia asked: How is love made to grow by these actions? And I'm not talking about romantic love between two people either. I'm talking about the kind of love that says 'This is simply wrong'. The kind of love that builds the New Creation and works for justice and peace?

For the life of me, I do not understand this argument that many Christians, including the Vatican, are using that gay rights undermines heterosexual family life. But lets look at the practical outcome of this: We are saying that we are ready to deprive gay people of their civil rights and that we are even willing to deliberately place them in situations where their lives are at risk, for the sake of 'family values'? Doesn't anyone see anything wrong with this?  (If you're a Girardian, this is a great example of the scapegoating mechanism.)

Hat tip to
Sebastian for the Reuters article.

01 December 2008

World AIDS Day

More information on World Aids Day 2008 is available here

Support World AIDS Day